Jov. An apple cut in half is not so like.
Lod. Well, lords,[143] you're mad lords to counsel me to this. But now, in this habit, shall I know the very core of her heart and her little piddling sins, which will show in my book as foils to her giant-bodied virtues.
Jas. That will be admirable!
Jov. We'll step aside: by this she's upon coming!
Jas. We shall know all.
Lod. Reveal, confession! but go your ways: as much as may lawfully be revealed, we'll laugh at at next meeting.
Jas. Come, let's be gone. But once upon a time, sir,
A beggar found a lark's nest; and, o'erjoy'd
At his sudden glut, for he thought 'twas full of young ones,
Looking, they were all gone: he was forc'd again to beg,
For he found in the lark's nest a serpent's egg.
So much good d'ye, sir. [Exeunt.
Enter Dorothea.
Lod. Well, thou surpassest all the courtiers in these pretty ones, if a man had the wit to understand them. Yonder she comes: I can hardly forbear blushing, but that for discovering myself.
Right reverend habit, I honour thee
With a son's obedience, and do but borrow thee,
As men would play with flies who, i' th' midst
Of modest mirth, with care preserve themselves.